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Before I start complaining about how all my teams lost over the weekend, a small spot of joy:

A testament to the craziness of Broncos fans. Yes, that is a gigantic orange fur coat. Every time I glanced over, I couldn’t help but think, “Wait…what is Kid Rock doing here?”

The day before that K-State had lost a heartbreaker to TCU, and then the Royals dropped a second game to the Astros on Sunday. On top of all that, I got utterly crushed in Fantasy Football. BUT the Royals won yesterday and are headed to Game 5 of the ALDS tomorrow!

…which begs the question…should I wear the same clothes tomorrow that I had on yesterday? I mean, how closely do people actually check out one’s work clothes?

Great things from the last few days:

His and hers beer glasses at Boone’s (the bar ran out of the appropriate tulips and gave M a super-size, compared to A’s petite version):

(Just FYI if you’re in Denver, Boone’s has tasty food that I would describe as “upscale bar food” and a good beer selection. Never mind that I’m biased toward Boulevard’s Tank 7 and they carry that…it’s also a cool atmosphere and they have lots of TV’s that they will tune to your game of choice, provided you get there early enough.)

Maple Bacon FROSTING:

Really? I kind of want to try it just for bragging rights. I like maple on my bacon but I don’t know about the two in frosting form? Could be amazing, could be bile-inducing.

And the best, found at Target for only $4.50:

Childhood fave. Note that this is not the creep-tastic Johnny Depp version (with all due respect to Depp, who I do think is generally an extremely good actor). This is Gene Wilder being so amazing that you barely realize how amazing he is. Although my favorite Wilder performance of all time has to be Young Frankenstein.

Pure genius.

Orangetheory again in the morning (I think I may have perma-sore abs, somehow) and possibly wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday. Don’t judge.

Tuesday started off well (weights circuit!), then devolved into a face-sized brownie, courtesy of one of the cafeteria workers who spotted me, R and S huddled over our laptops in the dining area.

Pen added for scale. The cafeteria guy is great…occasionally he (literally) throws leftover homemade Rice Krispies treats or brownies at us while we walk by. I keep thinking I need to bring him cookies one of these days, but as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions…

A and I squeezed in a walk in the drizzle later that evening. It finally feels like fall and there is snooooooooow on the mountains!

Today definitely felt like a Monday; I was pretty exhausted from a long, busy weekend. Starting off with a torture hike:

See that brown line leading up the mountain? That would be the Incline of Manitou Springs. It’s basically a never-ending staircase that nets 2,000 feet of elevation gain in one mile. Saturday was A’s birthday and her birthday “present” was to climb that sucker.

Funny thing…even with all the hiking I do and my enjoyment of rock climbing, I’m actually pretty scared of heights. The first time I turned around and looked down my legs instantly got wobbly and I automatically said “Whoa, Nelly” and sat down. S and A thought it was pretty amusing, of course.

It was pretty exhausting and the view at the top wasn’t much, but the (gentle) 4-mile hike out had some really great views.

I once read somewhere that “it’s not an adventure until something goes a little bit wrong.” Well, this girl – the OCD person who checks that she has her keys at least three times when exiting her vehicle – locked the keys in the car.

AAA to the rescue!

I kid you not, this guy had my car door opened in about 20 seconds flat. I gave him a hug afterward. This isn’t the first time AAA has bailed me out; they came in handy when I had an Eclipse that liked to get flat tires. Definitely a worthwhile investment.

The rest of the weekend consisted of football watching, naturally. Not my best football weekend, as my beloved Wildcats lost AND my fantasy team came up short. I apparently am quarterback Kryptonite (Tony Romo, Andrew Luck).

Another glorious sunset over the Rockies last night. I never get sick of looking at them.

That shot was taken en route to the Dive Inn, one of my favorite, you know…dives. I mean, there’s a freakin’ boat in the middle of the establishment. What more could you ask for?

I walked there with A so we could enjoy some fantastic local beers:

and watch some of the football game. It’s incredible how compelling every football game suddenly becomes when you’re in a fantasy league.

Today was completely uneventful except for the fact that it’s Friday at long last and I hit my knee so hard on my desk that I wanted to burst into tears. Time to hit the gym for weights, then probably be super-boring and clean tonight. Up early tomorrow morning for A’s birthday hike!

Thanks to B’s urging, I tried something new this morning: Orangetheory Fitness.

A very gracious welcome, AND I got top billing! They must have known that I’m kind of a big deal (feel free to roll your eyes here).

The basic format is that you alternate between treadmills, rowing machines, and weights. So you have three groups rotating around and the instructor gives cues to each as far as when to sprint or push the pace (treadmills and rowers) and which exercises to perform and for how many reps (weights).

(Yes, the entire studio is bathed in that orange light)

It was an amazing workout. Each participant wears a heart rate monitor; the goal is to keep in the “Orange” zone, which is 84% or higher than our maximum heart rate. The whole workout philosophy (which you can read about here) is that training at certain intensities for certain periods of time increases your metabolic rate for 2 to 3 days afterward. I won’t get into the science mumbo-jumbo, click into the link if you want the nitty-gritty details).

I left drenched with sweat and will definitely be back.

Rewind to last night, when I thought I might not live to see the Orangetheory studio this morning:

I was innocently brushing my teeth in the bathroom, which is connected to my bedroom via my closet. So, there is a door from bathroom to closet and another at the end of the closet leading to my bedroom. Both were open.

Mid-brush, I suddenly hear a moderately-loud crashing noise and see in the bathroom mirror that the door to the bedroom is swaying back and forth. My heart skipped about 23 beats and I wished I was closer to the Maglite under my bed. Then my brain thankfully stepped in and reminded me that I had hung both of my hiking packs on adhesive hooks in the closet wall.

Guess I need to rethink my organization strategy. Those Target hooks were no match for the big, bad Gregory pack (no offense to Target, which I love like a big-box store that has everything I need and a ton of stuff I didn’t even realize I need).

Since Orangetheory kicked my booty this morning, I was beyond excited about breakfast when I got to work. (Side note: our team members take turns bringing in breakfast once a week, and the offerings have run the gamut from quiche with homemade guacamole to the tried-and-true bagels and cream cheese)

Santiago’s breakfast burritos! Hands-down, my favorite breakfast burrito in Denver. Don’t ask me why the plastic knife is hovering menacingly in the foreground, it has a mind of its own. Anyway, Santiago’s portion size is not overwhelming, so you can eat the whole enchilada…um, burrito…without sort of hating yourself afterward.

It’s almost football time, and those Fantasy Football teams don’t monitor themselves. Until tomorrow!

I’m on day three of a fairly old-school weight-lifting routine.I burned myself out on all the crazy circuit work — as effective as compound movements interspersed with plyometrics can be, I was just sort of over it. It feels good to make friends with the free weights and machines again…I even track reps and weights with pen and paper…soooooo retro.

The best part of the day had to be the utterly ENORMOUS zucchini my coworker R brought in. Seriously, it was roughly the size of a cricket bat….longer than my forearm and quite hefty. I considered hiding it under my bed in case I ever need to club intruders, but it might not keep well. I have a big ol’ Maglite for that purpose, anyway.

After a lively discussion of sushi vs sashimi at work yesterday, I went for a walk with A and dragged her into Sprouts afterward because I had to get this: